Contents

History

Corps sectors of military responsibility in NATO's central region in the '80.

The Central Army Group (CENTAG) was established in 1952 and assigned to work with United States Army Europe at Campbell Barracks, Heidelberg, Germany. When the Bundeswehr was activated in 1955, some German personnel were assigned to the plans section of CENTAG.[2]

Structural changes began in June 1993, when CENTAG and the Northern Army Group (NORTHAG), Mönchengladbach, Germany were deactivated and combined to form Allied Land Forces Central Europe (LANDCENT), which was activated in Heidelberg on 1 July 1993.[3]

1) contribute to the protection of peace and deterrence of aggression,

2) plan, prepare and direct operations of allocated land forces for the security and defence of his area of responsibility,

3) plan, coordinate, and conduct synchronized air/land operations in support of CINCENT's theater campaign, and

4) be prepared to conduct peace support operations

At the lower level, all strictly national corps in the central region were superseded, in wartime plans terms at least, by the mid 1990s. All NATO corps, except for the German IV Corps, were then multinational. In the mid-late 1990s there were four multinational main defence corps in NATO's Central Region: one Danish-German (LANDJUT), one Dutch-German (I. GE/NL Corps) and two German-United States (II GE/US and V US/GE). The two German-United States corps were strictly wartime command organisations.[5]

Originally, LANDCENT command was to be rotated between German and Dutch generals. In 1996, The commander of US Army Europe (USAREUR) assumed an additional role as commander of LANDCENT with General William W. Crouch assuming command. The dual command of USAREUR and LANDCENT allowed the continued integration of American forces into NATO's post-Cold War structure. In addition, an agreement was made which set out the arrangements under which the European Corps (Eurocorps), consisting of units from Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, and Spain, would be made available to NATO in times of crisis.

Reorganisation

The departure from the Cold War era brought the implementation of a new NATO Integrated Military Structure and LANDCENT was formally designated as Joint Headquarters Centre (JHQ CENT) in a ceremony held in March 2000. The new structure, which accompanied this designation, included personnel from five additional nations: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Norway and Poland - making a total of 12 NATO Nations contributing to the Headquarters. In July 2004, JHQ CENT was once again reorganised and designated as Component Command-Land Headquarters, Heidelberg (CC-Land HQ HD).

Headquarters Allied Force Command Heidelberg has been deactivated as part of NATO's transformation. The newly activated Allied Land Command (LANDCOM), located in Izmir, Turkey, has assumed responsibilities from Allied Force Command Heidelberg in Germany as well as Allied Force Command Madrid in Spain.[8][9] The deactivation was finally completed on March 14, 2013.[10]